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Well, you can have racist people with high I.Q. and conservatives, too. I don't think all three are necessarily linked. I know a person who is racist and conservative but high I.Q., otherwise I would not put up with him. I only learned recently that he did not count himself out as an "atheist" since he used to go to the Unitarian Church and claims that "many Unitarians are atheists looking for a social outlet." His racist and conservative ways are understandable considering his environment: poor, rural, &c. -- why do you think Tom DeLay engineered the gerrymandering of Texas? So that urban areas with higher Hispanic and much higher black populations would have a diluted vote, the cowboy types and farmers from Irish Catholic, Lutheran, and evangelical upbringing would increase the likelihood of a GOP victory.

Many people can be very intelligent until the issue of where man came from is addressed. That's when the bullshit starts pouring in. 9-11 and the Boston bombings are of this type. So are TV commercials that want you to "receive Jesus." Why is it that our mythos system has people with good I.Q.'s suddenly becoming people who display a low I.Q.?

It's an emotional defense system. My father went through years of depression where he wouldn't leave the house, socialize, or work. A few years after I moved out he was suddenly "better". His problem wasn't depression or a mental state he could control (as he claims), it was that he had turned away from religion and was being punished. My stomach turned hearing a very intelligent man spew nothing but ignorance. He now holds extreme Christian fundamentalist views and takes an antigovernment, antiscience stance. He has even told me that the Grand Canyon was created by receding water from "The Flood". It's really very sad. Every person I can think of has an emotional reason for their religious beliefs. I find this very unnerving, and emotional instability to varying degrees is much more common than most recognize.

Reading the article, it's clear the authors are not stating "racism = low intelligence = conservatism", but rather there is a complex relationship among those traits. IQ itself is difficult to define separate from cultural factors, even if we use IQ as a shorthand for intelligence. That issue is not addressed.

As the authors quote, "“ideologies get rid of the messiness and impose a simple solution.", so people who are not comfortable with complex thinking might find an ideology a great way to speak in shorthand, with easy answers. Conservative ideology (I think) is more simplistic than liberal, so (I think) there could be a factor there.

In addition, the authors state: "What this study and those before it suggest is not necessarily that all liberals are geniuses and all conservatives are ignorant. Rather, it makes conclusions based off of averages of groups. The idea is that for those who lack a cognitive ability to grasp complexities of our world, strict-right wing ideologies may be more appealing."

I'm making a wild guess here, but I'm thinking Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck are both very intelligent. I wouldn't allow either of them into my house, even in emergency to use the toilet. Supposedly, GW Bush has an IQ score of 125, but I still think he's stupid. Admittedly I don't like the source of that info - christian post.

It's nice to think of our opponents as "stupid" but it's not the case. Some of them are just jerks. Also, I think some manipulate data, oversimplify, and mislead to garner votes from those who are less blessed in the intelligence department.

I think it's less that they're stupid than that they lack empathy. And even the most intelligent of people can still be LAZY, not wanting to invest the time or effort to dig into a complex issue to understand it fully, or to dismiss complexity because of prejudices gained over one's lifetime. Between those two factors, it may be possible to explain a LOT of the less thoughtful, more knee-jerk conservatism out there.